Lawn care basics and trimming order
The big thaw is on across the country and means that you guys will be getting that itch to get out and start working on your lawns soon. With that in mind, I figured it would be a good idea to focus on some of the basics that you must practice and master in order to turn around your ugly lawn, or maintain your already beautiful one. I plan to break this down into a series of articles so I can be sure to cover every base.
Trimming, mowing, edging, blowing
Let’s talk about mowing, trimming and edging first.
You already know the basics of how to mow the lawn. You need to cut tall, use a sharp mower blade, and mulch the clippings when possible. But do you know the correct order in which the process takes place? After all, it is important.
First off, you should do the string trimming, sometimes referred to as weed whacking. Some people will tell you to mow first, and then weed whack because they are not sure how tight their lawn mower can get to curbs, retaining walls and landscape bed. If you mow first, then you know how much needs to be weed whacked. In addition, if you cut first and establish the proper mowing height, then you can weed whack at that same height.
I’ll agree that these are quite good arguments, but they are not the most important.
Why weed whack first?
I want you to weed whack first so that any long bits of grass or weeds fall into the lawn and get sucked up and ground in to smaller bits by your lawn mower. This leaves everything super clean in the end.
If you mow regularly, you will be able to eyeball the height and how far away you should work from the obstructions.
After mowing, you do the edging. This is so the edges stand up super tall and don’t get pushed over from the mower wheels running across.
And of course, when that is all done, you need to use your blower to clean up the driveway and sidewalks. Done!
If you follow these tips when mowing this year, you will get a cleaner and mower-consistent cut overall, and that’s important.
